Entries for March 13, 2007

Well before the current flap over fired U.S. attorneys was making headlines, the interim U.S. attorney for Guam and the Mariana Islands accused the Bush administration of replacing him after he called for an investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a June 2006 report by the Department of Justice's inspector general.

Frederick Black had served in the position since 1991 and was replaced in May 2003.

The IG's investigation found that Black's allegations were unsupported. "Rather, we found that DOJ and White House officials selected [Leonardo] Rapadas as the nominee for Presidential appointment to the U.S. Attorney's position pursuant to the normal selection process, long before Black raised his allegations against Abramoff," it reads.

Etc.: Snake Eyes for 'Casino Jack' on USNews.com

This item comes from White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh:

Despite former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lead in the polls, Republican insiders say the GOP base is so divided and Giuliani's ascension is so fragile that the party's presidential nomination for 2008 is totally up for grabs.

"I've never seen the party so split," says a GOP strategist with close ties to evangelical Christians.

Giuliani, despite his strong image from 9/11, consistently falls well short of a majority. The latest CNN survey gives him a 34-18 lead over John McCain in the race for the Republican nomination.

"Contrary to the view inside the Beltway," the strategist says, "we don't have anybody who is the torch bearer or who is remotely agreed upon."

With a small but growing chorus of lawmakers calling for him to step down, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales gave a brief press conference this afternoon during which he confirmed the resignation of his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, in the wake of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. That news had been leaked to several major newspapers on Monday.

The New York Times has a political obituary of Sampson here.

Gonzales said he was unaware of Sampson's involvement in much of the machinations that went on behind the scenes that resulted in the firings.

Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee released 25 pages of E-mails and other documents, which are available here.

Last week we pointed out evidence from psychologists suggesting that asking people whether they would vote for a generic candidate of a given gender, race, or religion is useless. (A Washington Post/ABC News poll did just this in late February.)

This time the culprit is Gallup, which released a poll this morning that asked many of the same questions. Pollsters asked respondents whether they would be "completely comfortable" voting for a candidate with a given trait, would vote "with reservations," or would simply not vote for that candidate.

Like the previous poll, the "72 years old" category won the biggest negative response, with 41 percent of respondents saying it was a disqualifier. (Forty-two percent said it didn't matter.)

While these polls do not portend actual votes, as the author of the Post/ABC poll stressed to News Desk, the naysayers believe that abstract questions like these just don't apply all that well to living, breathing candidates. A better method, they say, would be to test prejudices experimentally in a research setting.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is in hot water today after describing homosexual acts as "immoral" in an interview published in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

Today, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian members of the military, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, demanded an apology from Pace, which does not appear to be forthcoming. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. advocacy group for lesbian and gay rights, also criticized Pace for the comment.

More developments coming shortly. Audio of Pace's comment is here.

Update: SLDN spokesman Steve Ralls tells News Desk that, in lieu of an apology from Pace, they will call for Defense Secretary Bob Gates to apologize on his behalf.

"I do hope that Secretary Gates will distant the Pentagon leaders from Pace's remarks," Ralls said. In the meantime, he added, "we're not taking any option off the table."

Update: Pace released a statement this afternoon in response to the criticisms, in which he said, "I should have focused more on my support of the policy and less on my personal moral views."

Etc.: Law Schools Fight the Military Over Gay Rights, on USNews.com

On the campaign trail today:

• John Edwards holds a rally at Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C.
• Mitt Romney raises funds in Boise, IA and Paradise Valley, Ariz.
• John McCain holds three fundraisers in Southern California.

From the Political Bulletin: Giuliani widens his lead in the polls, while McCain decides to skip another conservative meeting that will host some of his competitors. (McCain also skipped the Conservative Political Action Committee conference two weeks ago.) Meanwhile, Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, is officially in the race, which will make at least one of our readers happy.

Etc.: Coulter's Racy Joke at CPAC Got the Laughs, on USNews.com

This morning's top stories:

• At the beginning of President Bush’s second term, the White House pondered a seismic dismissal of every U.S. attorney in the country in order to begin the year with a fresh slate, a spokeswoman said Monday. The eventual decision to dismiss eight of the chief prosecutors has caused a political fiasco.
• Democrats nixed a provision from a defense spending bill Monday that would have required that President Bush receive Congressional approval before initiating military action in Iran. Officials said yesterday that many lawmakers had express concern over the impact the provision would have had on Israel.
• Bush makes his last stop on his Latin America tour today when he meets with the new president of New Mexico, Felipe Calderon, to discuss drug trafficking and immigration.

  Video: Bush in Guatemala on Monday.

• The behemoth contractor Halliburton Co. is moving its headquarters from Texas to Dubai.
• The surgeon general of the Army has become the third high-ranking official to retire in the wake of the scandal at the Walter Reed Medical Center.

  Video: Kiley forced to retire.